J.D. Power, the world leader in car reliability and quality testing, recently released their 2024 Initial Quality Study, and the results have not been good for Electronic Vehicles (EVs). Despite arguments that EVs should require less repairs than their internal-combustion engine counterparts due to fewer parts and systems, the inclusion of repair visit data from dealerships in this years study has shown that in reality it has been the opposite.
The repair data, which logs hundreds of thousands of real-world events reported to franchise new-vehicle dealers (in the United States), as well as the original survey sent to 99’144 purchasers/lessees of new vehicles, paints the picture that EVs are not yet as reliable. While EV’s on average have 30% more problems than combustion engine vehicles in the ‘features, displays and controls’ category, the frequency of their trips back to the dealership for repairs is a real cause for concern.
“newly incorporated repair data shows BEVs (battery electric vehicles), as well as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), require more repairs than gas-powered vehicles in all repair categories. “Owners of cutting edge, tech-filled BEVs and PHEVs are experiencing problems that are of a severity level high enough for them to take their new vehicle into the dealership at a rate three times higher than that of gas-powered vehicle owners,” Hanley said.”
J.D. Power measure their initial quality studies based on the metric of “problems per 100 vehicles” (PP100) as a measure of owner-reported issues experienced within the first 90 days of ownership. While petrol and diesel-powered vehicles averaged 180 PP100 in this study (the industry average was 195 PP100), EV’s experienced almost 150% more problems with an average score of 266 PP100.
The study also highlighted increasing competition in the EV market, with Tesla and EVs manufactured by other brands reporting similar problem numbers, where Tesla had previously fared better.
“While there are no notable improvements in BEV quality this year, the gap between Tesla’s BEV quality and that of traditional OEMs’ BEV quality has closed, with both at 266 PP100. In the past, Tesla has performed better, but that is not the case this year and the removal of traditional feature controls, such as turn signals and wiper stalks, has not been well received by Tesla customers.”
While EVs may have come a long way in being a feasible vehicle option in a short amount of time, this study shows there is still work to do to reach the necessary reliability to completely replace its combustion-engine competition.